A rare excellent remake. If anyone could do it, it makes sense that it'd be the Coen brothers. Great performances from Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin establish the stakes and drama, and Hailee Stenfeld is rightfully the breakout star. Westerns aren't dead in American cinema, they're just waiting for someone who knows what they're doing with them.

Hailee Steinfeld totally owns this movie. But the others, including Bridges and Brolin are still excellent. This is a great Western, and it’s very well-made. My only thing is that while I fully acknowledge that the Coen Bros. did a fantastic job here, I enjoy their other movies more. The ones that feel like a Coen Bros. movie: The Big Lebowski, OBWAT, Fargo, NCFOM, Blood Simple, A Serious Man, etc.

The single best argument for remakes you can get, True Grit is achingly sincere and encourages the audience to invest in the upright Mattie Ross to beat all comers. If you don't like Westerns, watch True Grit to see what they have to offer.